HR Specialist I/ HR Specialist II

New York State Energy Research•City of Albany, NY

About The Position

As a leader in advancing New York’s energy transition, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) is a credible, objective and trusted partner in energy planning and in deploying new innovative technologies to build an affordable, abundant, reliable, and clean energy system. NYSERDA works with stakeholders statewide, including residents, business owners, developers, community leaders, local government officials, universities, utilities, investors, entrepreneurs, and more, to develop, invest, and foster conditions that: Attract the private sector capital investment needed to expand New York’s clean energy economy. Advance solutions for using clean energy at a large-scale in New York. Enable New York’s communities and residents to benefit equitably in the clean energy transition. JOB OVERVIEW The HR Specialist I/ HR Specialist II sits within the People Experience & Operations team. This role is the operational backbone of the People function, providing direct, day-to-day support to the Director, People Experience & Operations and enabling execution across Talent Acquisition, Experience, Insights, and compensation support activities. This role blends People Operations, HR coordination, corporate operations support, benefits and compliance administration, HRIS/data governance, and budget/contract execution to keep the team on track and ensure consistent, audit-ready employee experience. This role includes day-to-day HR system updates, data integrity, access controls, audits, compliance boards, policy communications, and operational reporting support. The role partners closely with Payroll and Finance to ensure HRIS configuration and effective-dated transactions support accurate payroll outcomes. While this role does not run payroll, hands-on payroll processing experience is required to understand downstream payroll/finance impacts and proactively prevent issues through strong HRIS governance and disciplined data management.

Requirements

HR Specialist I (Grade: MC 21-23; Salary: $78,333-$108,413)
Bachelors degree and five years of experience in high volume, large company/organization, HR Operations, including benefits processing.
HR Specialist II (Grade: MC23-M2; Salary: $86,773-$131,298)
Bachelors degree and six years of experience in high volume, large company/organization, HR Operations, including benefits processing.

Nice To Haves

HR Specialist I (Grade: MC 21-23; Salary: $78,333-$108,413)
Master’s degree and three years of experience in high volume, large company/organization, HR Operations, including benefits processing.
HR Specialist II (Grade: MC23-M2; Salary: $86,773-$131,298)
Masters degree and four years of experience in high volume, large company/organization, HR Operations, including benefits processing.
Related Certifications (including Cornell HRM, SHRM-CP etc.)
Advanced Excel capabilities (v-lookups, pivot tables, complex formulas)
Substantial large-scale payroll
Proven project management experience- HR Project Management role helpful
Operational Excellence emphasis in prior work (Lean, continuous improvement, Six Sigma, Kaizen etc.)
Data centric experiences with high customer interface
Experience developing, SOP’s, guidance documents, training and user content of internal internet pages (Knowledge Base or other)
7 years of high volume and complex benefits, payroll or related processing experience
7 years of experience working within HR Information Systems, such as ADP, Workday, PeopleSoft, Paylocity, managing data and running complex reports
Experience creating dashboards
Excellent written and verbal communication capability
Ability to onsite five days a week to start with consideration for hybrid after 3-6 months

Responsibilities

Provide direct operational support to the Director: calendar management, meeting logistics, agendas, notes/action capture, and follow-up to drive closure.
Lead People Operations contract management, invoicing, expense, budget and related activities.
Support the People team operating rhythm across Talent Acquisition, People Experience, Data, Systems & Insights: deadlines, cycle calendars, dependency tracking, and status reporting.
Triage, route, and track People Operations requests to ensure timely completion and clear ownership across functional areas (TA, onboarding/offboarding, benefits, performance, compensation, systems, employee experience).
Float operational support across the People Operations function as needs shift (e.g., TA surges, benefits/performance cycle demands, compensation activity windows, systems clean-up, reporting deadlines).
Own daily HRIS transactions and data maintenance, including effective-dated employee changes, job/org updates, workflow processing, and documentation control. Execute recurring audits, reconciliations, and data-quality checks; investigate root causes, correct errors, and prevent recurrence through SOPs, controls, and training.
Support org charts and headcount/position tracking artifacts; ensure alignment between HRIS, reporting outputs, and source-of-truth records.
Create and maintain HRIS SOPs, job aids, and user guidance; support system changes and adoption.
Manage tech stack access governance: access requests, approvals, provisioning/deprovisioning, role-based permission alignment, and periodic access reviews.
Partner with IT and system owners to ensure confidentiality, internal controls, and audit-ready documentation.
Conduct recurring audits of system access and sensitive data permissions; document findings and coordinate remediation.
Benefits administration including health, dental, vision, life, and retirement plans
Open enrollment, new enrollments, terminations, invoice reconciliation and payroll updates
Leave program administration (FMLA, parental leave, disability, workers compensation)
Tuition reimbursement processing
Accommodation process support and case management in Labor Soft System
Partner with Payroll and Finance to ensure HR-owned inputs are payroll-ready: effective dating discipline, validated changes, clean data, and timely upstream processing.
Perform pre-payroll audits and reconciliations of HRIS/timekeeping-related data (as applicable) to catch issues early (new hires, terminations, job/pay changes, leave impacts, retroactivity).
Coordinate resolution of HRIS-driven payroll issues by correcting data and strengthening upstream controls and SOPs (without executing payroll runs).
Maintain HR-owned calendars, trackers, approvals, and internal controls related to payroll-impacting changes.
Provide operational and data support for compensation activities: maintaining job/position data, pay-related HRIS fields, effective-dated pay changes, documentation routing, and audit trails.
Maintain and update job descriptions.
Support compensation-related reporting, cycle tracking, and governance artifacts in partnership with Compensation/HR Analysts.
Ensure compensation-impacting transactions follow defined controls and approval processes.
Support internal and external compliance reporting (as assigned), ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and proper review/approvals.
Maintain compliance boards/trackers and governance logs (policy updates, required postings, record retention, audit calendars, control checklists).
Communicate policy updates and operational changes with version control and source-of-truth practices.
Serve as liaison to Contracts/Procurement for People-related vendors: intake, routing, renewal tracking, vendor files, SOW/PO coordination, and documentation control.
Support purchasing and invoice workflows, including coding support and coordination with Finance.
Maintain a People budget dashboard and renewal calendar; support reconciliation and variance awareness using budget/GL concepts.
Support offer letter workflow operations: templates, approvals, routing, document control, and consistent communications (in partnership with TA).
Provide scheduling/logistics support as needed during recruiting peaks; maintain TA trackers and process documentation.
Support recurring dashboards/status reports and ad hoc reporting across Talent Acquisition, Experience, Insights, and compensation support activities.
Improve reliability of reporting inputs through data quality routines and definition discipline.
Support employee recognition, celebrations, and key experience moments; partner with Communications and Facilities for logistics as needed.
Coordinate with the Ethics Officer when ethics matters require HR data, workforce records, or People Ops actions; track HR-assigned follow-ups and maintain secure documentation controls.
Maintain confidentiality, access controls, and retention standards for HR-handled ethics-related documents.
Coordinate OSHA-related documentation/reporting support in partnership with designated safety owners; maintain required records and follow-up tracking as assigned.
Coordinate weather-related notifications and emergency communications in partnership with Communications, Facilities, and leadership.
Support emergency drills and preparedness activities: scheduling, tracking, and documentation of follow-ups/lessons learned.
May support incident documentation and Workers' Compensation administrative coordination (documentation collection/follow-up), maintaining confidentiality and retention controls.
Perform all job responsibilities with respect, fairness, consistency, and inclusion.